This is a list of known issues that we are aware of and are investigating.

Entering CD Key into Steam

After you install the game and create a Steam account, pull up your Steam Games List.
Pick the "Games" menu item, and select "Activate a product on Steam..."
Follow the instructions, and enter your CD key there.

Dual core problems

If you are on a dual-core machine and have been experiencing random crashes or major performance drops, please check out this Source-engine knowledge base article for how to fix the problem:

A small percentage of customers in German-speaking countries outside of Germany (e.g. Switzerland, Austria) are either unable to play the game, have the "low-violence" version (no head gibbing), or are getting a message saying that the game has yet to be unlocked.

Fixed/Workaround. A small percentage of USK keys were accidentally distributed along with the German language PEGI keys. Incorrect keys that we are aware of have already been properly converted. If you are experiencing any of the above and do not live in Germany, please create a support ticket with Valve and they will unlock your copy. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Game won't run, gives error about not being able to load 'filesystem_steam.dll'.

Workaround.
Close Steam.
Start/Search, type Steam.dll, click More Advanced Options then tick, "Search System Folders" and "Search Hidden Files and Folders"
Then delete every occurence of the file, then Restart Steam.

Note: Steam will have to re-download some files from the Internet if you do this, and may take a couple of minutes.

The sound stutters.

Fixed for most in Patch 1. We're currently working on merging in the rest of the latest Source engine drop from Valve to fix it for everyone else who is experiencing this problem.

The game hangs or crashes in the U4 Labs.

Fixed in Patch 1. Some people were unable to progress to the second part of the U4 Labs levels.

I can't get to the main menu.

If you use ZoneAlarm or another personal firewall and do not add "SinEpisodes.exe" to the allowed programs list, the game will not get to the main menu.

If you use GoBack, please disable GoBack prior to your first play, or it can take up to six hours to get to the main menu. You can re-enable GoBack after you get to the main menu once.

The game crashes or hangs.

Workaround. If the game is crashing for you immediately following the intro videos, but before you see the "SiN Episodes" logo on a black screen, you have a corrupt driver installation. The easiest way to fix it is to completely uninstall all of your video drivers using Add/Remove Programs, download and install the latest video drivers, and finally reinstall DirectX 9.0c either from the installation media or from Microsoft's DirectX website.

There have been reports that XFire is causing random crashes during gameplay. We are investigating these claims.

There have been reports that WindowBlinds is causing crashes at the main menu and during gameplay. We are investigating these claims.

Some people have reported the game blue-screening or crashing seemingly at random. The causes for this have varied from video card or processor overheating to outdated motherboard drivers. If the game creates a file with an extension named ".mdmp" in the game directory, please send that file to crashes[at]ritual[dot]com.

Fixed in Patch 1. We are investigating reports of instability caused by mutagenic gas (the green clouds you see) and the shockwave attack used by one of the enemies.

My stats or my saves are corrupted.

Fixed in Patch 1. Some people have said that they were getting either no stats or corrupt stats in game.

A couple of people have had their save games corrupted. We received copies of these corrupted save games and are investigating. Most of the corrupt save games we have experienced have been traced to virus scanners and indexing programs like Google Desktop, MSN Desktop Search and the Windows Indexing Service.

If you load again too quickly after a load (i.e. under five seconds), the game can report that your save game is corrupted, even though it isn't. Just wait ten seconds and try loading again.

The game doesn't look right.

Workaround. On some early Radeon 9 series cards, like the Radeon 9000, 9200 and 9250, if you go into Poison Time, the screen blacks out. We are working with ATI on a fix, but in the meantime, if you set your launch options to include "-dxlevel 70", the Poison Time effect will not cause your screen to black out.

Workaround. If you have an nVIDIA SLI configuration and are seeing some display corruption in the middle of the screen, please upgrade to the 91.28 drivers.

We are investigating reports of particle effects, models and the world itself having a wireframe overlaid for no apparent reason. A possible solution is being tested. Some players were able to correct the issue by verifying their GCF files.

Some people have reported performance problems when using third-party drivers like the Omega drivers. Ritual cannot provide support if you are using unoffical drivers for you video card.

I'm getting stuck.

Fixed in Patch 1. Some people have been reporting that the cinematic at the end of the second U4 lab level never ends.

We are investigating claims that some people are unable to progress to the second level. If this happens to you, please go to your "sin episodes emergence" folder in your Steam folder, zip up and files that have ".mdmp" as their extension, and send those files and your DXDIAG information to crashes[at]ritual[dot]com.

Can't get to console on foreign keyboards

Several users reported this issue and resolved by taking the following actions:
1. Add "-console" to your startup options.
2. Enable the console by going to "options" "keyboard options" "advanced" "enable developer console".
3. If tilde (~) or the backtick (`) (normally to the left of the "1" key on English keyboards) still does not pull up the console, you can open your config file - found in steam folder\steamapps\[your username]\sin episodes emergence\se1\cfg\config.cfg - and change the line that says:
bind "`" "toggleconsole"
to
bind "\" "toggleconsole"
or put any key you wish in place of the "`".

Other Items

Some people have been noticing that it seems like they are being shot at through walls. Bullets do have a penetration depth in the game, and if the AI has enough information to believe that you are on the other side of a wall, they will try to shoot through the wall at you and can actually shoot through some walls. Of course, this is a straight-up fight, so there's nothing stopping you from returning the favor...

QuickSave and QuickLoad don't seem to be working.

The most common reasons that QuickSave and QuickLoad aren't working are:

1) You are playing in HardCORPs mode. In HardCORPs mode, saving is disabled.
2) You are using an enhanced-function keyboard, and the F-lock key has been hit and disabled your function keys' normal functionality.

If neither of the above apply, please make a post in this forum.

Some dialog won't play after looking at an item and pressing Tab.

Workaround. There is an issue with some of the "context look" items in the game (such as the Promexia Project PDA in the conference room in Docks) which can cause some dialog to not be played. This is caused by looking away from the context look item before the dialog has a chance to play. If you continue to look at the item until Blade finishes talking, it will work properly. We are currently looking at a fix to resolve this issue without having to continue looking at the item.